Donor terms and privacy wording for New Zealand not-for-profits

Problems often appear when a donor expects one thing and the organisation's process says another, or when personal information is collected through forms, events or online campaigns without clear wording. Common pressure points include whether donations are refundable, how restricted donations are described, whether donors may be publicly acknowledged, and what happens to contact details after a campaign ends. Clear donor terms and a privacy statement help set expectations, but the legal position still depends on how your organisation handles information in practice, not just what the document says.

Donor terms commonly deal with how donations are accepted, whether a donation is for a general purpose or a specific appeal, when refunds may be considered, and how acknowledgements or receipts are handled. The privacy statement usually explains what personal information you collect from donors, why you collect it, where it may be stored, who it may be shared with, and how people can request access or correction. The exact wording depends on your channels, such as website donations, events, recurring giving or manual bank transfer processes.

The drafting depends on your real fundraising practices. That includes whether you accept one-off or recurring donations, whether you run named appeals, whether donations come through a website or third-party platform, how you acknowledge donors, and whether you contact supporters again for future campaigns. We also look at what information you collect, uses of mailing lists, any overseas service providers involved in storing data, and whether volunteers or staff handle donor records. Those practical details shape the wording far more than a generic template can.

A precedent can be a starting reference, but tailored drafting is usually safer where the document affects customers, staff, suppliers or regulators. However, it often leaves gaps where your organisation has specific fundraising methods or data flows. For example, a generic form may not deal properly with campaign-specific appeals, recurring donations, public donor recognition, or the way supporter details move between your website, email tools and internal records. Tailored drafting is useful where the right advice Privacy wording works best when it is matched to your real collection, use, storage and disclosure practices.. That is especially important for not-for-profits with multiple donation channels or changing campaigns.

Timing depends on how quickly you can provide the practical details about your fundraising setup and donor communications. Once we have that information, we draft the donor terms and privacy statement and work through any required updates. If your organisation has several donation pathways, such as website giving, event fundraising and manual donations, the wording may need more iteration so the documents stay consistent. After completion, you can publish the documents in the places donors will actually see them, such as donation pages, forms or campaign microsites.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Donor Terms And Privacy Pack service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

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Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.